Buin, Papua New Guinea
Encyclopedia
Buin is a settlement at the southern end of the island of Bougainville
Bougainville Island
Bougainville Island is the main island of the Autonomous Region of Bougainville of Papua New Guinea. This region is also known as Bougainville Province or the North Solomons. The population of the province is 175,160 , which includes the adjacent island of Buka and assorted outlying islands...

, a part of the North Solomons Province, located in the northern Solomon Islands
Solomon Islands
Solomon Islands is a sovereign state in Oceania, east of Papua New Guinea, consisting of nearly one thousand islands. It covers a land mass of . The capital, Honiara, is located on the island of Guadalcanal...

 in the South Pacific Ocean.

History

Not long after World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

, German settlers arrived in the Buin region to mine for gold. Many local Bougainvillians took skills such as brick-making from them.

During World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

, the Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

ese occupied Bougainville in early 1942 and used Buin as a base. American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 military forces seized a portion of Bougainville in late 1943, but bypassed the rest of the island, including Buin. In late 1944, the Australian Army took over responsibility for clearing Japanese forces from the island and slowly began to advance south from Torokina towards Buin where the main Japanese forces were located. Stiff Japanese resistance and heavy rains, however, brought the advance to a halt in July 1945, just after the Australians reached the Mivo River. As a result Buin remained under Japanese control until the end of the war in 1945.

In 1943 Americans ambushed a flight carrying Admiral Yamamoto; his destroyed bomber crashed just north of Buin.

In 1975 Papua New Guinea (PNG) declared independence from Australian government rule.

Not long after Bougainville declared independence from Papua New Guinea government rule, causing PNG to invade Bougainville with the military support of both the Australian (Australian arms) and New Zealand governments (Kiwi pilots) in an attempt to take back control of the island to secure control of the lucrative Panguna Copper Mine from which PNG and Australia derived significant mineral resources such as copper, silver, and gold.

On the day Bougainville declared independence from PNG rule, Buin erupted with a storm of local activity, including the destruction of the local council building blocks, massive craters being dug out of the local airstrip (aka airport) with bulldozers to ensure PNG forces could not land there, and the local goal literally being torn apart and carried (manhandled) down the main street of Buin and dumped in front of the council buildings.

The locals formed a strong rebel army and successfully fought back and through a bloody and horrible series of fights, PNG and their allies Australia and New Zealand were ejected from the island, which still remains an independent state to this day.

Bougainville has since grown to be a strong and well established independent nation, with significant financial support from nations such as Germany.

During its heyday, Buin was a wonderful town with a main street, with a very picturesque one-way road in square form encompassing its main area of development, which included four trade stores, three run by Chinese and white Australian families (the Chinese having been resident in PNG since pre-World War I German rule), and one run by the local people.

There were very well-established primary and high schools, and a thriving vocational learning college, a small motel, the obligatory local drinking hole (aka tavern aka "pub"), local markets which ran every weekend filled with local trade including local fruit (guava, paw-paw, and mangoes), vegetables (cumu, taro, sweet potato and pumpkin), fish of all types, local fresh water crayfish, and fowl, including domestic chickens and local wild fowls. Bats and possums were often featured as well.
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